Methyl chloroform is one of several chemicals that were banned by the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances. Until the late 1980s it was widely used as an industrial solvent and favored for such uses as dry-cleaning and manufacturing inks and coatings. It has a relatively long life in the troposphere (5-6 years), although not nearly as long as most CFCs. Emissions have been reduced dramatically in response to the Montreal Protocol, but measurements reported by Krol et al. (2003) indicate continuing emissions at some unknown locations in Europe. These lingering emissions are not large enough to be significant for ozone depletion, but they do complicate estimates of global tropospheric hydroxyl radical (OH, a very reactive atmospheric constituent)
References
Krol, M.C., J. Lelieveld, D.E. Oram, G. A.Surrock, S. A. Penkett,
C. A. M. Brenninkmeijer, V. Gros, J. Williams, and H. A.
Scheeren, 2003: Continuing emissions of methyl chloroform form
Europe. Nature, 421, 131-135..